Impatient Kan'na

Kan'na raised a hand, "Ah Torch! It's such a shame what happened during the raid, else I wouldn't have approached you like this."

Torch felt like he was experiencing whiplash, "N-No how did you-?"

"Sorry Mr. Torch!", Givale and Mira apologized simultaneously.

Kan'na decided to cut in and provide the last bit of context, "I had Givale trace your mana signature here. I asked Akiol to get me in touch with you but I'm impatient. Please forgive my rude entrance."

Looking at the two little ones Torch seemed to put together a few pieces, "Okay. . . did you need something? I'm a little preoccupied with replacing the army I lost."

"Yes I wanted to commission you. Currently I'm in charge of keeping these two safe so they're here as well, but they're not what I need your help with."

Torch picked up the box he dropped earlier, "Like I said, busy with replacing that army. You said they followed my mana signature?"

"Here.", Kan'na allowed the floating mana generating core to move into view, "It was in the rubble of your firework show."

"That's one of the generating units I use for my main bodies, it should've been destroyed during the self destruction."

"I'm guessing the Rot messed with that."

"So am I. . .", Torch's tone and expressions remained indifferent due to his mechanical body.

Moving over to a table Torch set down his box. Ruffling through its contents he spoke casually, "Mira, Givale, you two can mess with the training room I designed for you guys before. I trust you remember it's location?"

Mira nodded, "I do!"

"Cool, off you guys go then."

The two skipped off happily. Kan'na watched their movements and frowned. Their mental fortitude was worthy of praise. They seemed entirely unaffected by the raid they participated in. Upon thinking about it further Kan'na felt that the raid wasn't nearly as stressful as some of the fights they've been in before, despite the foe being Fourth Stage. Givale faced against the Origin Hydra, and the Chimeras in their entirety was certainly more terrifying. Kan'na even was beginning to think that their unique race had a play with their mental fortitude before a mechanical cough snapped her out of deep thought.

Clasping her hands together Kan'na immediately turned into a business mode, "I highly doubt I can afford the costs of anything you can make. So I come to you with a trade."

Torch eyed his mana generation core currently hovering in the air via magic circle. Extending a finger he asked, "You aren't offering me my own things are you?"

Kan'na looked towards the unit and shook her head, "What? I'm no scammer. Here."

Grabbing it she tossed it towards Torch. Swiping it out of the air Torch looked upon it, his eye twisting about as he thoroughly inspected it. Surprisingly he then crushed it, "Utterly useless, it's beyond repair and much less something you could reverse engineer. So how'd you find me with it?"

"There was a trace of mana left inside. It took me a bit to find it and extract it, but it held your signature nonetheless."

"That can be used to track somebody?"

"Er, normally not? There's records of mana signatures that exist, for instance the guards at the gates of Kingdoms and such ask for one. However that's more like a copy, one printed onto a piece of paper. You'd need the actual mana itself to do any tracking. Had I waited a few hours I couldn't use this method. By then the mana would've returned to the ambient kind."

"I see. . . then with the signature what did you do?"

"I had Givale use it as the endpoint of her portals. If you're worried about someone else mimicking this method they'd not only need a live piece of mana but they'd also need to be very proficient in space manipulation."

"Which is why you had Givale do it. . . Okay, I see now."

"If you want protection against someone replicating this I can add that to my proposed deal I plan to make."

"We can discuss, care to follow for a moment?"

"Of course, I'm already rudely interrupting. I do hope you'll forgive me for that."

"Sure."

Kan'na was unable to tell Torch's mood due to his mechanical and monotone voice. Regardless she happily followed him along. They entered a large factory, several mechanical arms twisting and welding pieces together. Others forming complex parts. Kan'na whistled, "Torch, is this a hobby or do you have other plans."

"Hobby. Also each time I successfully make a product I get both experience and progress to a new blueprint."

"Are you creations something you can only create with given blueprints?"

"Not necessarily? They just remove a lot of the trial and error. For instance that over there is the visual modules I make for the standard footsoldiers.", Torch extended a finger to a corner of the factory.

The machines reminded Kan'na of an upside down crab. Several mechanical arms bent and twisted to create a single item that stood in the center. 

Torch turned towards a conveyer belt and knelt down. A finger on his hand split apart and a tool jutted out. Adjusting some of the parts within he continued to explain, "So I didn't have to make the visual module myself, but how I use them is up to me. That doesn't really stop me from making my own adjustments."

"Very impressive.", Kan'na genuinely praised, "So do you brute force some of your creations or is it something you studied?"

"A bit of both. I tried applying some real world engineering logic to the creations of a few objects, but the existence of mana makes certain things obsolete. There's an underlying set of rules I'm slowly understanding."

The conveyer belt suddenly sped up violently, flinging several of the items forward. Kan'na outstretched a hand and caught them via mana control. Torch made a clicking sound and adjusted the conveyer belt further. It slowed back and he shook his head. 

He praised the catch from Kan'na as he rose back to his feet, "Quick reaction. Sorry about that."

Kan'na set the items back on the conveyer belt, but kept one to look at. It closely resembled that of a circuit board. Kan'na wasn't an expert regarding this, but she found its existence incredibly odd.

"That's their logic circuit. It's the main controller for their movements and what handles my orders.", Torch explained while gesturing for her to hand it back.

"Circuit boards work with electricity right? But this seems to run on mana."

"Like I said, some real world applications are obsolete."

Kan'na placed it into Torch's palm, "Right, but isn't this very inefficient?"

He put the circuit back onto the conveyer belt and pressed a button on his interface. The conveyer and machines moved back into motion and the assembly line continued. Torch watched this process for several seconds to ensure everything was working before addressing the question, "Inefficient?"

"Mana works more like a whirlpool than traveling like electricity. It likes to swirl to a single point. I figured you knew this since your core held the spherical shape."

"The core is one of the things that came from a blueprint.", Torch raised a finger to rest his chin on, falling into deep thought.

To this Kan'na smiled, "It seems my negotiations might proceed better than thought."

"Perhaps. . . why did you come here?"

"I need a commission. A really specific and very precise machine. Since I doubt I have the money to pay for it, I wanted to offer my knowledge regarding mana and magic. Your creations work on mana, meaning they also have various weaknesses that someone with a bit of know-how can abuse."

"In exchange for this insight on mana, I am to make you one machine?", Torch's monotone voice hid his confusion.

"Precisely! I can give you a little freebie right now to entice you."

"I think stating that it's to entice me ruins the purpose."

"Disagreed.", Kan'na rose a finger and a magic circle formed.

The assembly line suddenly froze and shut down. Torch looked towards it and slowly returned his gaze to Kan'na, "This almost feels like a threat."

"Not my intention.", Kan'na half apologized.

Flicking away the magic circle the assembly line returned back to normal, no signs of any interruption in its process. 

Folding his arms Torch considered the offer, "Okay, I always appreciate the data."

"Wondrous! Would you like to hear what machine I need first, or would you like me to inform you how to protect against what I just did?"

"Let's start with this commission you want so I can let you know if it's even possible. Akiol asked for a helicopter once, I can't do that."

"I remember that!", Kan'na chuckled, "What I need is very simple, but still complex. I need a precision cutting machine that can move in the three axes. The more precise it can be, the better."

Torch pushed a thumb to his forehead, "It's possible, very much so. However that depends on what exactly you're trying to cut."

"Say the object is cylinder in shape, but I need it to cut basically anywhere both in and out of the cylinder."

"In and out? Outside is doable, but if you want precision cutting inside that's not something easily done. Can you be more specific?"

Kan'na rotated her hands about as she gathered her thoughts, "Basically I need it to be able to carve runes throughout my entire body."

Torch stared at her for an awkwardly long moment.

Once he processed what was asked of him he only had one question, "What?"